Man fatally shot by police in Medfield

Police fatally shot a man Tuesday afternoon after a confrontation inside a home in North Baltimore’s Medfield neighborhood, officials said.

Anthony Guglielmi, the department’s chief spokesman, said an officer responded to a report of a “family disturbance” at about 4:30 p.m. at a townhome in the 1400 block of N. Weldon Pl. The officer called out a “Signal 13,” for an officer in distress, and responding officers saw the suspect struggling with the first officer, with a knife nearby, Guglielmi said.

The responding officer fired at least once, striking the suspect, who was pronounced dead a short time later, Guglielmi said. The victim was not immediately identified.

Seven people have been fatally shot by city officers this year, two more than all of last year, and another man was wounded in a police-involved shooting. The ratio of fatal-to-non-fatal victims is unusually high — in 2010, 10 people were shot by city officers, only two fatally.

Neighbors from across the street said they saw officers entering the home, but didn’t hear the gunshots. “I saw a policeman draw his gun and go in the house, then another went in after him,” said Roxann Krowe. “When I heard the helicopters, I shut the window.”

The neighbors said a young woman who appeared to be pregnant was taken away from the scene by detectives. The commotion shut down a stretch of Buena Vista Avenue north of West 41st Street, a typically low-crime area near Hampden.

The Fraternal Order of Police said in a message posted to Twitter that the officer were not injured in the incident.